


Boo's Carols for Two

by Marguerites



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, Band Fic, Chan is a brat, Enemies (?) to Friends to Lovers, I know it's january but we are doing christmas, M/M, Mention of underage drinking, chan would totally say dude
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:54:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28809951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marguerites/pseuds/Marguerites
Summary: He loves putting on a performance, showing people how he knows his instrument, showing them he knows his voice.He’s always loved it, ever since the first time he stood on stage. And he knows he’ll love it for all the years to come.But Boo Seungkwan is a star in the night sky, shining brighter than any star on stage.And suddenly, across the room, he feels so many kilometers away.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Lee Chan | Dino
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24
Collections: Seventeen Rare Pair Fest: 2 Rare 2 Pair





	Boo's Carols for Two

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SVTRarePairFest2](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SVTRarePairFest2) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Chan is an indie performer who thinks popstar and ballad singer Seungkwan doesn't make /real music/. Meddling mutual friend Hansol sets them up for whatever reason, and Chan starts to realize that maybe Seungkwan isn't as bad as he thought he was and might actually respect him.
> 
> +Boochan bickering!

“Good morning,” Chan greets over the soft sound of jazz playing in the background of the record shop as soon as he enters, the door falling closed behind him accompanied by the dull chime of the bell.

He hears Seungcheol shout a greeting back from the direction of the staff room, followed by a “can you get that box by the door? Josh brought it over earlier and I still haven’t filed those.”

And true to his word, there was a worn out cardboard box filled with a bunch of CD’s he’s never heard of, most of them sporting colorful spines and covers encased in partially cracked plastic. 00’s one hit (?) wonders the writing in blue marker on the side of the box spells. And as far as Chan can see, that description is probably not too far off.

He picks it up as he makes his way over to the staff room to get ready for his shift, but he stops in his tracks when he sees the newly decorated bestseller shelf propped up in the middle of the floor looking strikingly different from how he’d last seen it before the weekend.

This is new.

The shelf is decked out, from top to bottom, in little reindeer and santa charms, sparkly stickers in the shapes of stars and christmas trees, and to top it all off, several silver tinsel garlands wrapped around the shelves. Little notes on green and red paper read ‘new release!’ and ‘get a poster with every copy!’ in Seungcheol’s best attempt at neat handwriting and Chan swears he can smell an inviting mix of cinnamon and gingerbread only in the close vicinity of the shelf.

And amidst this Christmas abomination the usual ranking of albums is gone and replaced by rows and rows of the same four albums. All from the same singer, the nation’s pride and favorite ballad singer, Boo Seungkwan. Known for his charmily husky voice and quick wits and, well, his yearly christmas albums.

Chan doesn’t even know enough christmas songs to fill one album, let alone four, but here they were, Boo Seungkwan’s christmas carols, A White Christmas With Boo, Boo’s Merry Christmas and the newest addition, Boo’s Carols for Two positioned neatly next to each other, more volumes placed behind and underneath each cover than any of the other albums and vinyls they stocked in the store.

Next to the shelf, on a smaller table covered by a hideous green tablecloth with red mistletoes printed on it, a single copy of Boo’s Carols for Two was propped up next to a small chalkboard once again reminding of the free poster that comes with the promotional campaign of the new album and, in a smaller font, the store special of Boo Seungkwan’s other albums being 15% off.

Chan doesn’t realize he’s been staring at the countless little faces of Boo Seungkwan fake-smiling at him from A White Christmas With Boo until Seungcheol is next to him, taking the box off his hands.

“You really went all out with this Boo Seungkwan guy,” Chan finally says, eyes not leaving the hoard of Boo Seungkwans in front of him. 

Seungcheol clears his throat and bashfully states that “Well, he sells really well. And we can kinda use the money with HMU taking all the CD sign events recently.”

Chan turns to Seungcheol and rolls his eyes, “of course he sells well, he’s a popstar and he sings christmas songs like, half the year.“ That‘s literally the best way to fame, he doesn‘t say.

“It also comes with a poster,” Seungcheol tells him, as if that wasn’t perfectly obvious by the countless sticky notes on the shelf. 

And Chan isn’t one to judge good business decisions so he settles on a scoff and leaves to get ready for his shift.

The rest of the day goes fairly normal. A few pretentious college students come in to look for vinyls to use as decor, Jeonghan visits shortly before lunch time to bring Seungcheol a sandwich he ‘accidentally bought two of’ only to stay and eat his own share in the back with Seungcheol.

Chan uses his lunch break writing back to the printing company who’d sent him an email about his flyers being ready for pick up and reminding everyone in the groupchat of their practice session at seven. Minghao answers immediately, telling them that he won’t be able to come. Again.

He gets another text from Minghao in their private chat, telling him, I’m sorry, got an exam on wednesday. But I can make it to thursday practice?, to which Chan replies with, sure, don’t worry.

In his mind he’s already working through their set without the bass in it, knowing it would feel quite lonely. Maybe they could work on individual stuff today.

Good luck on that exam!, he texts after a minute and then pockets his phone.

Just like every day the store gets busier in the afternoon, but today it feels especially crowded, most of their customers being middle and high school girls. As he’s checking out three identical copies of Boo’s Carols for Two, the girl purchasing the albums tells him that she’s so glad she found a store that still had posters left.

Vernon comes in a few minutes before closing and Chan could swear he saw him walk with a little skip in his steps. And in all the time he’s known him since first year in college, he’s only ever seen him do that twice. Once when he decided to adopt a cat and once when he got accepted to do an internship at Universe Records.

Vernon didn’t leave him much time to wonder about what could have given him the happy feet as he’s already crossing the shop floor and leaning over the counter. “Hey,” Vernon greets a little bit too loudly, but his smile is too bright for Chan to say anything about it.

“What’s up?” Chan asks, genuinely interested. Vernon’s workplace is only around the corner so it’s not unusual to have him drop by, but it’s definitely unusual to see him this… radiant. 

Vernon leans a bit over the counter and the lights bring a sparkle to his eyes when it catches them. “So you know I’ve been doing this internship at Universe Records for a while now, right,” he starts, and Chan gives him an enthusiastic nod. Of course he knows, Vernon had spent every waking hour of the last four months there. “They offered me a fixed position, Chan!”

The words take a while to settle in, but when they do, Vernon’s happiness suddenly becomes so contagious he ends up rivaling his friend with a smile just as bright. “Hyung, that’s amazing!” Chan feels warm and full of pride, of course his best friend would get a job at the country’s best studio. “So you’re continuing to work with Lee Jihoon?”

“Yeah, we actually work quite well together, so he recommended me,” Vernon explains, the smile on his lips and the flush on his cheeks not leaving. “He works with so many well known artists! Honestly, it’s such a great opportunity to work there.”

Chan rolls his eyes and points at the popular new centerpiece of the shop. “You mean him?”

“Oh wow,” Vernon whispers and his eyebrows rise as he scans the holiday themed eyesore. “Seungcheol Hyung really went out of his way for this one, huh?”

“Yeah, I know,” Chan chuckles, eyeing the quickly depleting supply of christmas albums. “It’s kind of lowering our standards, but whatever sells I guess.”

Seeing Vernon’s smile falters when his lips purse and he sighs. “And your standards are,” he leans over the counter to peek at the cardboard box full of CD’s now finally added to the inventory list and ready to be put on the second hand shelf, “00’s one hit (?) wonders,” he asks with one eyebrow raised.

“These guys didn’t make it because they tried new stuff. Not their fault the public didn’t like it,” Chan grumbles under his breath.

Vernon lets out another sigh, and decides not to comment on that. “Listen, I know you don’t like Seungkwan for some reason, but he’s a cool dude.”

Chan glances at the cheesy photos with awful christmas sweaters and fake smiles on the album covers that have become the centerpiece of the store. Which don’t exactly exude the most cool dude energy.

Vernon seems to realize Chan isn’t buying it, so he adds, “really! I’ve met him a couple of times now and he’s always been nice. Actually, I’m pretty sure you two would get along quite well!”

Chan’s eyebrows knit together as he tries to imagine it for a second before quickly shaking off the thought. “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t even know what to talk to him about.”

Vernon gives him a look of disbelief and shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know- music, maybe?”

Chan knows a truce when he sees one, so he purses his lips and accompanies his “sure” with a little eyeroll.

-

On his way to the rented practice studio Chan drops by at the printing shop to pick up the flyers he ordered, checking the information on them for the last time. He’d already done that at least five times before they were printed, but making sure one last time wouldn’t hurt.

There were official flyers for the event already, containing information on all the groups playing, but he wanted to make one for their own band as well. To hand them out before the concert. Or in case anyone got interested in them after their performance. 

He checks if their band name is spelled correctly, if the date matches - two weeks from now - and if they wrote the right venue. The Box, Itaewon. Even looking at it written on paper he still can’t believe they’re going to play at one of the biggest live houses in town, the place for indie bands to perform at if they wanted to make it big.

But still, the embarrassingly early time slot almost feels like mockery. 17:45 to 18:00. Barely enough time for three songs and a little talk, and probably before most of the guests would arrive. A bold reminder of how he’d basically had to beg Taeyong to let them play at all.

He knows this is just a lucky chance, one that he wouldn’t have been able to get without Chaeyoung’s connections, but that just makes him all the more determined to make this count. 

He’s not going to complain about performing early, he tells himself. As long as he can stand on stage, that’s enough. At least for now.

-

The next two practice sessions go well, or at least as well as they can go without Minghao helping him keep Soonyoung and Junhui in check. He has to convince Junhui to scrap the magic tricks he had apparently already planned for the show and together they help Soonyoung decide which tiger print shirt ‘fitted the occasion better’.

And on Thursday Minghao joins them again for practice, bass guitar packed up and on his back, three bags of ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be here’-chips in his hands and a lopsided smile on his face.

“That was my last exam for this month, let’s get this started, shall we?”

And Chan might not be the biggest sap, but there’s certainly something warm blooming up inside of him that he only feels when all of them are together. “Yeah, let's do this,” He tells them, beaming up at Minghao who he’d maybe missed a little more than he should have.

He slings his guitar around his neck and glances at his phone one last time before putting it back. There’s a text from Vernon blinking at him.

Can you help me out with some sampling on saturday?

He quickly runs through the calendar in his head even though he knows he’s always free on saturdays, and writes back a quick sure! before he puts it on silence and decides to ignore it for the rest of the night.

-

Fridays are officially Chaeyoung days, as by tradition ever since they were in high school. At sixteen they were spent trying to get some beer from the seven eleven around the corner while they talked about the struggles of being a teenager. But with their age their struggles changed as well. From doing bad at school and dealing with parents to dealing with uni, dropping out, getting by.

But something that never changed were their dreams. Silly little childhood dreams that had brought them to Seoul, to new people, new challenges. What was born in stuffy violin lesson rooms and their neighbor’s garage had turned into their biggest passions.

Their paths diverged as soon as they got to Seoul, deciding that one band doesn’t need two fiery singers dying for attention, and instead deciding that they’d be each other’s biggest fans and their support.

So on friday, Chan tells her he doesn’t know if he should straighten his hair or leave it wavy for the concert, if he should wear contacts or glasses, if he should make jokes during their introductions or keep things mysterious and interesting.

On friday, he cries on Chaeyoung’s shoulder because he’s scared of fucking up again.

-

The next day he goes to meet Vernon at a park close to their workplaces, heavy winter coat filled out by the several layers of sweaters. He finds his friend right by the entrance, as he’d promised.

“Why are we meeting outside? It’s -8 degrees for god’s sake,” He grumbles into his scarf.

“Jihoon Hyung told me I could start working on my own songs now,” Vernon explains. “And I wanted to record some footsteps on snow.”

Chan furrows his brows and looks at the snowed-in pathways. “Oh, ok.So you just want me to walk around?”

Vernon spares him a quick smile, but he’s already too busy with getting the mic set up to respond.

After a few recordings of Chan walking on squeaky snow, Vernon looks up at him expectantly.

“So, Seungkwan has a recording session tomorrow,” Vernon’s eyes are carefully reading his face, like they always are. “You said you wanted to see Jihoon Hyung in action once, right?”

Chan can’t help but scoff at that. “Yeah, but not with Boo Seungkwan-”

“I told him about you, y’know,” Vernon interrupts him.

There’s a long stretch of silence Chan doesn’t know how to fill. Why did you tell him about me? What did you tell him about me? And most importantly, What did he say about me? flashing through his mind and landing on the tip of his tongue.

So Boo Seungkwan knows about him. Probably about his unsuccessful career and that he’s stuck in-

“I told him about your band. And your music. He said he wanted to meet you,” Vernon cuts his thoughts short.

“Huh?” Why, so he can tell me how unsuccessful I am? “Sorry, I’m not really up for that,” Chan tells him.

Vernon usually reads him well, but for once, he doesn’t seem to get the memo. “He was interested in your music when I showed him one of your songs. Said he’d love to meet you. Why do you dislike him so much anyways?”

Chan stares at him, not knowing how to explain it when asked straight out. “I don’t dislike him,” He starts with a deep sigh. “It’s just, I don’t really like his music. It seems so lackluster. He’s famous and popular, he’s got it all, and yet he doesn’t really make an effort to make something out of it,” he searches Vernon’s face, but it’s almost unreadable, but if Chan had to place an emotion, he’d say relief. “You know, actual art.”

-

For the millionth time, Chan tugs at the collar of his blouse. It’s not actually crooked, not after he’d made sure it wasn’t for the last two and a half hours. Not that that would matter when he has more than half of the buttons undone. He’s wearing it for the first time, suddenly a bit conscious about how sheer and sparkly it was, even though he was wearing a tanktop underneath. And even though he loves anything sheer and sparkly.

But something about performing in front of at least double the amount of people compared to their usual gigs just made him conscious about wearing the sheer and sparkly blouse Minghao had gotten him.

He’d planned this through. He’d planned to take it off in the chorus of the second song, to keep things interesting and people watching.

He knows these people aren’t here for them. Not when there’s barely three hundred followers to their twitter account and half of the fans here have more than that. Not when most of the girls are already wearing shirts of their favorite bands, reapplying makeup to leave a lasting impression.

But even if they might not have come for them, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t try and leave a lasting impression of their own.

And if taking off a flimsy blouse would get them more CD’s sold, he’s sure as hell going to do it.

As he’s walking himself through all the talk and lyrics again, Chaeyoung waves at him from the other side of the corridor. “Hey! You look gorgeous! Who did your makeup?” She asks excitedly as he approaches her.

He smiles what feels like the first smile of the day, and says, “I did most of it, but Junnie helped me with the eyeliner.”

Chaeyoung looks into his eyes like she always does when he’s nervous. Full of confidence and pride, so much he could basically feel it spilling over to him. 

“The rehearsal went great and I already went around to say hi to the other groups. This is going to go perfectly fine,” he tells himself more than her, and she smiles an even bigger smile at him.

“Of course it will, this is going to be amazing! You worked so hard for this!”

He doesn’t know how to thank her for cheering him up, so he pulls her into a hug. “I have to get going, we start in five,” he tells her after a while and slips away towards the changing room.

He gathers his guitar and his members and after an overly loud pep talk from Soonyoung they walk up onto stage.

The applause is minor, with only a handful of people in the small room clapping for them. Some of them are pretending to not notice that they’d taken over the stage, some are just watching on, unsure if there’s anything worth clapping for yet.

The room is bigger than any of the venues they’d ever played at, and there were at least double the amount of people in the crowd. There were a few fans he recognized from previous events, but most of the others looked only mildly interested.

But Chan decided not to dwell on it, instead focussing on the warmth he felt from the heavy stage lights, the loud crackling coming from the amp as his fingers slightly graze over the familiar strings. He slings the guitar around his shoulder and adjusts the mic, sliding it down by a few centimeters. They play a few beats to check their equipment before they all stop and look at each other, signing to start.

And from there it all comes natural, the countless practiced riffs, matching and playing off of Soonyoung’s play, Minghao’s bass vibrating through to his bones and Junhui’s drums booming behind him, setting the pace. He feels his lips touch the mic from time to time, feels the scratch in his throat when he gets too gritty. He feels every touch of metal and plastic prick the tip of his calloused fingers, every touch of strings electrifying him, telling him not to stop.

It feels amazing.

He loves putting on a performance, showing people how he knows his instrument, showing them he knows his voice.

He’s always loved it, ever since the first time he stood on stage. And he knows he’ll love it for all the years to come.

He doesn’t realize he hadn’t had his eyes open for most of the song, until it came to an end.

There’s a fair amount of people staring at them now, acknowledging them, looking up with sparkly eyes and flushed cheeks.

He reaches for the microphone as Junhui lets the song run out and waits for him to finish it with a bang before introducing the band.

“Hi, we’re History, thanks for having us tonight!” Gives a big smile to the crowd, winking at a few of the girls in the back who’d been shyly watching them, only to break out into giggles after. The crowd grows a little louder after that.

He gives a brief introduction of all the members, but the itch in his fingers comes back, begging him to continue playing, and they start the next song.

This time he keeps his eyes open, matching the energy in the room, but he gradually sees more and more people turn to the back of the room, trying to see over to the small bar. And he sees the people whispering, whispers he can’t hear over the bass and his own voice. When everyone in the crowd had finally turned their backs to them, standing on tiptoes to catch a glimpse of whoever was there, he raises his gaze to the back as well, eyes easily falling onto familiar ones.

Right by the bar, like a deer caught in the headlights, was Vernon, and next to him, Boo Seungkwan.

He was wearing a bucket hat and a mask, wiggling around to get out of the people’s grasps. Vernon was helping him, slowly pulling him towards the staff room, where the bartender was leading them to. His eyes only meet Chan’s for a split second.

Boo Seungkwan was gone just as quickly as he’d noticed him, most of the crowd trying to follow right after him, the other people’s gazes lingering on the door he’d left through.

He hadn’t realized that the music had stopped until he felt the heavy air of silence in the room. One look at the floor beneath him, and Chan knows the people in the crowd were never here for them. Even if they’d managed to pique their interest after the first song, that interest has dissolved into thin air together with Boo Seungkwan.

They might not have come here for Boo Seungkwan either, but everyone knows a star when they see one, sparkling bright in a sea of darkness, the light catching on them easily even if they try to hide.

And yet here he was, up on stage with the lights on him, nobody looking at him, blouse still on. He hadn’t gotten to the bridge yet, where he’d planned to take it off. He’s the one sweating under the stage lights, the one people had been staring at only moments ago.

But Boo Seungkwan is a star in the night sky, shining brighter than any star on stage.

And suddenly across the room feels so many kilometers away, so unreachable, so stupid and unrealistic and so full of empty dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> To the person who prompted this, thank you very much! I had so much fun writing this and I have so much more planned!  
> I‘m sorry I made them start out on a bad note, but I promise they will get there eventually!
> 
> Talk to me on Twitter @mingyusmanboobs :)


End file.
